Our Team
Our Team
Chas Salmore
President / CEO
A 25-year veteran of the entertainment and marketing industry, Chas. is the Founder and CEO of Marketingworks, Inc., a leader in social-media activation and digital word-of-mouth outreach. Over the past nine years, Chas. has successfully generated gross revenues in excess of $95MM from direct marketing campaigns and innovative sales strategies.
Prior to opening his own firm, Chas. held senior management positions with Marvel and Telepictures as well as consulted for Disney, Fox, Sony and Warner Bros. A graduate of UC Berkeley and UCLA’s prestigious Film/Television department, Chas. resides in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. When not immersed in internet ventures, or lecturing extensively on the future of digital marketing, you can find Chas. surfing at Malibu or other Southern California point breaks.
“If there is any period one would desire to be born in, it is the age of Revolution ... when the old and the new stand side-by-side. This time is a very good one.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
History of Marketingworks, Inc.
Originally founded as a direct-marketing agency in 1991, MWKS built a highly successful business supporting the official licensed merchandise from Hollywood film and television studios. Simply put, MWKS promoted fan-based merchandise (t-shirts, signed posters, show props, etc) through numerous non-retail outlets. These included many “old school” distribution channels – (such as direct mail, inserts, hangtags, handouts, etc). This success led MWKS to produce and broadcast numerous direct-response television (“DRTV”) for these same clients/products. Soon Fox, Sony, WB, Disney, Paramount, MGM, CBS, and Universal were hiring MWKS.
“COPS: Too Hot for TV” was the most successful single-project created by MWKS during this phase of our existence. Millions of television viewers saw the sixty-second television commercials promoting this provocative “What the Censors Would Not Let You See!” DVD series and picked up the phone, or went online, to order. Over $65 million dollars in gross-revenue were generated in less than 6 months from the results. However, the entire entertainment marketing landscape changed after September 11, 2001. The DRTV opportunities available before 9/11 no longer existed. Between 2002-2005 the Company reorganized and turned our focus on consulted to media and technology clients, including Kodak Venture Group and San Ysidro Capital Partners.
In early 2006, MWKS returned to its original roots - as a marketing company- but shifted 100% of our focus towards innovative social media outreach – (then known as digital word-of-mouth). This approach includes actionable, measurable and dynamic online community “influencer” strategies. To reach online communities, MWKS deploys teams of highly-trained Brand Ambassadors who connect with people who are “hiving” in groups (tribes) online. Clients quickly saw the benefits of reaching their core-consumers through genuine and open 2-way communications. Maybelline, Toyota, Nickelodeon, Microsoft, Nissan, Hilton, Bahamas Tourism, AARP, NBC, History Channel, L’Oreal, M&M/Mars, Gallo Winery, Radio Disney, BBC America, Discovery Networks, Progressive Insurance, Pantene, Fox and many others use MWKS complete package of services.
In 2008, MWKS added state-of-the-art web-monitoring and crawling technology to our mix of capabilities. These sophisticated “web-chatter” tools provide clients with a way to “listen and learn” what is being said (in blogs, posts, message boards, forums, micro-blogs, video-sharing sites and other engagement channels, across the entire span of the web) before a successful - and precisely targeted – outreach campaign is launched. Today, MWKS is a recognized leader in social media monitoring and activation.
About Our Office
7000 Romaine Street, Hollywood, CA.
In 1927, world-famous industrialist, aviation pioneer, inventor, engineer and social raconteur Howard Hughes purchased this classic Art-Deco style building as his motion-picture studio headquarters. It quickly became the nerve-center of his rapidly growing global empire. From this fabled location, Hughes produced Hell’s Angels (1930) while involved in a highly-charged romance with Katharine Hepburn.
Hughes spent endless hours at 7000 Romaine Street, creating the costliest feature-film ever made at that time, with a whopping $3 million dollar budget. Hell’s Angels includes stunning aerial photography still unrivaled, even by today’s technical standards.
Hughes eventually moved on, building RKO Studios (currently Paramount Pictures) down the street, where he produced 25 more trailblazing movies, including Front Page, The Outlaw and Scarface. Howard then turned his boundless energy towards aviation (Hughes Aircraft Company) and constructed the world’s largest wooden flying boat (The Spruce Goose). His final years were spent in Las Vegas, as an eccentric, reclusive billionaire.
MWKS’ Los Angeles headquarters carries-forward the legend of Howard Hughes in Hollywood, as we occupy the same office-space where this bigger-than-life innovator nurtured his vision. The building is a living time-capsule of classic Hollywood – with a few 21st century technology-touches added to the plot. MWKS has installed laser wide-band fiber communications, wireless internet, dual high-power servers and other leading-edge business tools to build on Hughes’ legacy and this rich Hollywood history.
Here are a few pictures of our offices. Please stop by – and take a tour. The building is filled with history. We’ll even show you the private bathroom and shower, rumored to be used by Hughes and Miss Hepburn.
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